China Merchants' explosive private-banking growth sets up global expansion push
Surge in assets under management at wealth operation this year buoys hopes for international expansion targeting Chinese customers abroad
Assets under management at China Merchants Bank's private bank soared by more than 200 billion yuan in the first five months of this year as it gears up for one of the first major global expansions of a mainland-based private wealth manager.
The private bank's assets under management jumped from 752.6 billion yuan (HK$940.4 billion) at the end of last year to about 970 billion yuan in May, up about 29 per cent in just five months, Cai Canhuang, a senior vice-president at China Merchants Bank, told the South China Morning Post.
Aggressive investment in the mainland stock market over that period played a major role in driving the growth in the bank's wealth management operations.
"It wasn't all from stocks but that was a big part," Cai said on the sidelines of the Private Banker International Greater China Awards in Hong Kong last week.
Over the same period, the Shanghai Composite Index rose by about 50 per cent.
The private bank is setting out on a major global expansion that will eventually pit the eight-year-old operation against some of the world's most storied private banking institutions.